Friday, January 9, 2009

i DID it (kinda)

So, as I mentioned yesterday I've been slightly overwhelmed lately. I had two grants initially due today. I begged shamelessly for an extension on one of them because we received the reviews from the previous submission so late (NSF program calls are target dates and thus program officers can bend them if they wish but its always better to ask ahead of time because they don't have to accept late submissions). One of the things I forgot to mention yesterday was that I also had two manuscript revisions that were due today. Kinda like some awful academic deadline alignment. I forgot to mention them because one of them was done a week ago (thanks to an awesome collaborator who stepped up and did it for me) and the other I had already written off as being a lost cause after the following internal conversation:

Good me: This thing is a shoo in to get in. I have to make that deadline

Bad me: Look girl. Two grants, another manuscript that you know the editor would love an excuse to reject, preparing your class, and not vomiting on yourself. You know they want this paper, if you have to completely resubmit, you'll probably be fine.

Good me: probably is not definitely. This will definitely get in now if I send in the revision.

Bad me: You're obviously a little slow, so let me boil this down for you. If you try to get all of this done, you will go insane.

Good me: Hmm. The fact that I'm talking to myself is probably not a good sign for me, is it?

Bad me: Exactly.

It was a hard choice but I made the decision to let that manuscript lapse in lieu of other, more important, deadlines. But last night I woke up and I knew - I can do this!! I can get that manuscript finished today! And that's what I did. I got that bad boy back in. It wasn't pretty, but it's done.

Funny enough, I also submitted two grants today. A Laurel and Hardy combination of a miscommunication with the Sponsored Program lady and me pushing the "enable SRO access" on the wrong grant resulted in the proposal that is NOT supposed to be submitted until next week getting submitted today. Needless to say, that's a bit of a nightmare, but I think it'll all work out okay.

So, here I am. In a week's time I have gone from certain that there was a good chance that I might not be able to get 1 of my grants and 1 on my manuscripts submitted to technically having everything submitted. I am so the woman right now....

6 comments:

Congrats on getting stuff done! I hope I can get back to being productive... off topic- the first thought that came to my mind when I read your post's title was "Thats what she said!". I really need to fix my brain....